Aston Martin leans on Mercedes technology

AFTER decades of ups and downs, British sports car manufacturer Aston Martin Lagonda is charting a more efficient and profitable way forward, leaning on technology from shareholder Mercedes-Benz to make the costly leap to electric vehicles.

Less than two years after billionaire Lawrence Stroll drove to the rescue of James Bond’s car brand of choice, Aston Martin has undergone a manufacturing makeover to lift margins and help it become more like rival Ferrari.

Stroll, Aston Martin’s largest shareholder and executive chairperson, who is also an avid fan of Ferrari, says after vehicle sales jumped 82% in 2021 the car manufacturer’s transformation to long-term profitability is well under way, with new cars coming and funding secured until the end of 2025.

But analysts say Aston Martin, which has gone bust seven times since it was founded in 1913 and has flirted with death as often as Agent 007, is still burning through piles of cash. Some question its ability to generate Ferrari-like sales to fund the vast cost of electrification.

“It’s precarious and it is possible for this company to go bust,” said Redburn equity research analyst Charles Coldicott. “I don’t think it’s a controversial thing to say even though Aston wouldn't like to hear it.”

Asked to comment on perceptions of a shaky future, an Aston Martin spokesperson reiterated Stroll’s view that the car manufacturer is well on the way to long-term profitability and that it has adequate access to cash.

On a tour of the car manufacturer’s Gaydon factory, Tobias Moers, formerly head of Mercedes’ high-performance AMG brand and Aston Martin chief executive since August 2020, rattles off a list of moves including cutting one of two assembly lines and

bringing more bespoke items like seats in-house.

Perhaps the biggest shift has been to focus on higher-value customer-driven and customised orders – a big part of Ferrari’s success – rather than over-producing and churning out sports cars wholesale, which then had to be discounted.

“When I came in, the company was manufacturing-dominated instead of engineering-led, which for an auto luxury business is insane,” Moers said. “In a company this size, you need maximum flexibility and agility.”

Moers has cut Aston Martin’s inventory to 600 sports cars from 2 000 and customised orders now account for 50% of sales versus 6% when he joined the firm.

By 2025, Aston Martin aims to sell 10 000 cars annually – nearly 40% more than in 2021. This would be close to Ferrari’s production.

Stroll says Aston Martin will benefit from a deal made with Mercedes-Benz in October 2020 where it gets access to the German car manufacturer’s latest engines and EV technology.

Under that deal, Mercedes now

owns almost 12% of Aston Martin, which will increase to 20% in 2023. The German luxury car manufacturer has been relatively tight-lipped about plans for its stake in Aston Martin.

“It was really important for a company of this size, particularly with electrification coming, to have a big brother,” Stroll said. “So I did a really transformational deal with MercedesBenz in order to get their electric architecture.”

Aston Martin plans to launch its first fully electric car in 2025.

Sample size one

Car manufacturers have focused on outsourcing for decades, but increased customisation has Aston Martin reversing that trend, said CEO Moers.

Allowing customers to select their leather, stitching and other internal flourishes has led to a 20% increase in options, boosting the sales price.

But offering 30 different leather qualities and colours means 900 variations. As each car is individual, it is cheaper to do more in-house – for instance, Aston Martin plans to make its own steering wheels again.

“Variation at Mercedes-Benz was a nightmare, we wanted to cut it down and cut it down,” Moers said. “But here, this is our purpose. Our sample size is one.”

Aston Martin has closed its paint shop at Gaydon and paints most cars at its SUV plant in Wales – saving £1 000 (R19 930) per car by cutting the immense costs of two paint shops.

But Aston Martin will hand-paint any unique colour customers desire, for an additional cost.

Aston Martin has also started delivering the limited edition Valkyrie, a street-legal version of a Formula One car announced by the company’s previous management.

But the Valkyrie has been immensely expensive to develop, so will not be repeated as Aston Martin focuses instead on profitable sports cars. “There is no business case for this,” Moers said.

Mercedes will be the base

Before going electric, Aston Martin is launching a number of combustion engine models, including its powerful V12 Vantage sports car and a new SUV.

In 2023 the car manufacturer plans its first mid-engine sports car – where the engine sits behind the driver providing better weight distribution for performance – joining Ferrari, McLaren Automotive and Lamborghini.

For Aston Martin and its peers, going electric is especially tricky because the appeal of luxury sports cars is based on the feel of a powerful internal combustion engine.

“More of the people that are our customers today, who are more petrol heads, want to see, feel, hear and smell a combustion engine for a long time,” Stroll said.

Redbush’s Coldicott said Aston Martin lacks Ferrari’s broader appeal and likely cannot sustain the annual production of 10 000 units needed for long-term investments in new vehicles.

ASTON Martin has started delivering its F1-inspired Valkyrie, but expensive-to-develop cars like this will not be repeated as the car manufacturer shifts focus to more profitable models.